Ready
by Daydreamr4ever
Summary: Various points throughout Riley and Danny's journey to parenthood. Mini-series companion story to Bye, Baby. Can stand alone.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello! If you're reading because of Bye, Baby, welcome back to... my writing? And if not, that's okay. Basically, all you need to know is Danny and Riley have been married for about two years, Emma is eight or nine, and their apartment is Riley's apartment from the show. This was inspired by a guest review and I couldn't get this idea out of my head, so here it is. There are gonna be three or four chapters, depending on how I split it up. I've already typed them out, but I'm still editing. I worked on this basically all day, which shows how much of a life I have :P If you don't like Danny/Riley, this is not the fic for you. This is all fluff because I life fluff. It goes well with peanut butter on my sandwich. So, without further ado, Chapter 1!**

**~Caitlyn**

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"Danny. Danny, can you come home? Like, now? Please?" Riley begged him from over the phone. Danny jumped up from his seat, suddenly alert. His teammates looked at him curiously and he waved them away.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I... think so... can you just come home soon?" Riley's voice sounded strange, but Danny couldn't decide whether it was good or bad.

"Um... Okay, I'll finish up at the rink now." Danny said goodbye and hung up.

Two minutes later he was out of his skates and hailing a cab to get halfway across town. The entire ride he tried to think of something he had done wrong, but couldn't figure it out. He stopped drinking milk out of the carton, and he hadn't left his dirty socks lying around. He was actually under the impression that things had been great with his wife of two years.

When he reached their building, he tossed a few dollars at the taxi driver and jumped out of the cab, which certainly wasn't polite, but he really didn't want to keep Riley waiting. She had been sick recently- was she dying? As soon as the thought entered his mind, he sprinted up the stairs to their third floor apartment and threw open the door, nearly falling inside. Riley jumped up from the couch. "Danny? Are you okay?" She walked over to him, shutting the door behind him.

He leaned against her, gasping for breath. "I'm... Still ... so out of shape... What's wrong?" He collapsed on the couch. Riley sat down next to him gingerly.

"Nothing's _wrong_, I mean, I don't know what you're gonna think about it, but... well, here." She handed him something wrapped in a napkin. He opened up the napkin to find three little white sticks.

He stared at them for a minute, absorbing the information. They all said the same thing. Then he turned to Riley, and saw her looking at him uncertainly. "Well? What do you think?"

He broke into a grin. "Wait, you're really- ?"

Riley nodded. "Mmhmm. You're not mad, or worried?"

He swept her up into his arms. "Riley, this is one of the best days of my life!" He kissed her and set her down. "Are you happy? This is what we wanted, right?"

She hesitated. "I don't know, I mean, are we ready? I know we're not in a Ben sort of situation here, but still..." She trailed off, looking down and biting her lip.

Danny raised her chin to look at her. "Riley, if you're ready, I'm ready. But it's up to both of us. Not just me, and not just you." Riley gave him a look. "Okay, mostly you."

She smiled at him. And sighed. "Okay then, Wheeler. This is a good thing." He positively beamed at her.

"I love you." He said, before bending down to kiss her. He briefly pulled away to rest his hands on her flat stomach. "Hey there whoever you are. I'm gonna be your dad." He told her stomach, before running to the window and giddily hollering to New York "WE'RE HAVING A BABY!"

"WHAT?!" Danny whirled around to find Bonnie standing in the doorway.

"Uh..." Danny went back over to stand next to Riley. "Hi mom."

"You got her pregnant?" Bonnie demanded.

Riley raised her hand slightly. "Actually, we've been trying for a while, so actually-"

Bonnie covered her ears. "Lalalalala I suddenly don't want to hear this right now."

Riley crossed her arms while Danny rubbed his face with both hands.

"Okay, Mom? We don't need you telling everyone about this. We plan to do it on our own time." Danny said, giving her a knowing look.

Bonnie just gaped at him. "You're actually gonna have this baby, Riley?" She asked, turning to Riley. She nodded, looking like a deer caught in headlights. Bonnie shook her head. "Oh, Riley. Say goodbye to you body. And you could have stayed adorable."

Riley looked at Danny, confused. "Um, what?"

"If you're having Danny's kid, it's gonna be, like, five feet tall by the age of three." Ben snickered as he walked in, holding Emma's hand. Tucker appeared also, eating ice cream out of a plastic cup.

"Ben, Tucker! How long have you been here?" Riley demanded, whirling around to looking at her extended family, frustrated.

Tucker swallowed a bite of his cookie dough ice cream before answering. "Long enough."

Riley turned back to Danny. "Well, I guess now that _everyone_ knows" she began, glaring at the four people behind her. "There's no one else to tell."

"Are you having a girl baby or a boy baby?" Emma piped up.

Riley glanced over at Emma, and then looked at her family.

"Well, since there's nothing else to do..." Riley began. "Let's start taking bets."

"Five bucks says it's a girl!" Bonnie said instantly. Everyone stared at her incredulously. "I've actually wanted to do that for a while." she clarified.

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**Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more soon! And, as always, review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So, this is really unprofessional of me, but I'm leaving for three weeks tomorrow, and I just finished the draft of this story, which is what you'll be reading next. I, like, haven't proofread it even once :P When I gets back, I'll take down this version, edit it, and then re post it, but I didn't want to leave you with nothing. So here are the last bits. Enjoy!  
As always, I'm pleasantly surprised every day when I open up my email to all of the reviews and favorites and follows my stories have gotten, so thank you all SO MUCH! I'll miss you all, hehe :) I'll be back around August 5th. Until then, enjoy, and thank you for reading!**

**~Caitlyn**

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_Twelve Weeks_

"Alright Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler. This is your first ultrasound. Excited?" The doctor, Dr. Mila asked them as she walked in. Riley and Danny nodded excitedly, glancing at each other and smiling. Dr. Mila smiled at them as well. "Okay, so you're pretty big already Mrs. Wheeler- are you sure you're only twelve weeks?"

Riley suddenly looked worried. "I think so. Is that a bad thing? Am I eating too much, or-"

Dr. Mila cut her off with a casual wave of the hand. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. I'm going to spread this gel on you before we get the transducer going, alright?"

Dr. Mila asked the several questions about the pregnancy, and apparently the answers were sufficient, because she set up the transducer and began sliding it across Riley's stomach as an image began to form on the screen. Danny squinted at the slightly blurry image. "Is that... two heads?" He asked, turning to Dr. Mila.

She nodded. "It looks like you two are having twins. And from what I see here, they're pretty healthy so far. In about four weeks you can find out their genders if you want."

_Sixteen Weeks (Roughly)_

"A boy and a girl! Congrats, you two!" Ben said, hugging them both. Riley grinned.

"Thanks!" Riley chirped. "I'm really happy. Like, _so, so_ happy!" She beamed at her brother-in-law before going off to find Emma and inform her.

Ben patted his older brother's shoulder. "Congrats, man."

Danny glanced around before whispering hastily. "You have got to save me. Riley is a hormonal _mess_**_. _**She started yelling at me for no reason and then kissed me two minutes later for giving her a spoon for her ice cream. And she was crying all morning about nothing. It's ridiculous!"

Tucker walked in snickering. "That sucks for you, man. Even Ben didn't have to deal with that."

Ben smiled smugly.

"Yeah because Ben didn't know he knocked up-" Danny was cut off by his wife, hollering from the other room:

"BEN! What did you do to your daughter's hair?!" Riley hollered from Emma's room.

"Oh dear lord, what did you do, Ben?" Danny asked, rubbing his face with his hand.

"Nothing! She wanted to do her own hair today..." Ben trailed off, his eyes widening. "Emma?" He scrambled off to her room.

Tucker nudged Danny with his elbow. "See that? With twins you'll never sleep. Have fun!" Tucker strolled out before Danny could say more. Sighing, Danny stood up and decided to save at least one person from Riley's hormones. He slipped into Emma's room and picked up Emma and led her out of the room and into the living room where he detangled her hair with this spray stuff from the bathroom and then sent her back into the war zone. At that moment, Riley stopped screeching at Ben and began admiring Emma's new hair.

Ben stumbled out of Emma's room, looking dazed. "Thanks, man." He said to Danny. His brother shrugged.

"Anytime."

_28 weeks_

Riley started suddenly and sat up straight, holding her stomach. Danny sleepily blinked his eyes, and saw his wife's facial expression. "Hey, is everything okay?" He asked her, rubbing her back automatically. She looked at him, and randomly started giggling slightly. "What? He asked her, biting back a sigh. _More hormones_, he thought.

Riley shook her head. "It's not bad. I think one of them is hiccuping. It tickles." She giggled again, and Danny smiled, pressing his hand to her swollen stomach. He felt slight movement there, but he couldn't tell if it was one of them hiccuping or the other one moving.

Lying back down, Riley suddenly looked troubled. "Danny." She said, looking straight at him. Danny lay back down on his side so he could face her.

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering why It was so important that I sleep on my right side when I realized something. Soon, we're not gonna sleep at all. We're probably going to be those stressed out, crazy parents who are up all hours of the night. We're never going to be clubbing and getting so drunk we can't see anymore. No more Halfoween." She mused, rubbing her stomach.

Danny brushed some short strands of hair out of her eyes. "Yeah, but it's a good thing. We're going to have kids, and take them trick-or-treating, and to see movies and help them know that we love them. We'll teach them how to read, write, ride bikes and play hockey." He said brightly. Riley raised and eyebrow at the last part, but didn't argue.

"Yeah. I guess we will." Before Danny could reply, though, Riley was sound asleep again.

_The morning after that_

"And... Switch" Riley handed Danny her piece of paper in exchange for his, and scanned quickly through the list. "Mia... Leia... _Zelda?_ Really?" Riley glanced up to find her husband still reading her list. He glanced up at Riley's face.

"What? It's a good name!" He defended himself. Riley just rolled her eyes and went back to the list. A few moments later, the silence was broken again, this time by Danny.

"Wait, Jack? You put the name _Jack_ on your list?" He scoffed. Riley blinked, confused. "Do not put your ex-boyfriend's name on the list! Do you know how weird it would be to have our son named after your ex-boyfriend?"

"Do you know how weird it would be to have our daughter named after a _video game character?_" She fired back. Danny gave her a look. "Fine." She sighed and took back her list, looking it over and crossing out a few names before handing it back. "There."

He counted the names that had been scratched off. "You might have named our son after _five_ of your exes? Really?"

"Technically, you would have done the naming. I wrote the boy names list and you wrote the girl names list. Then we switch and pick. You would have done the picking."

Danny just shook his head at Riley. "No. Just no."

Twenty minutes later, they both looked at each other simultaneously. "Have we decided?" Riley asked. Danny nodded in confirmation. Riley looked down at her stomach. "Okay you guys. You ready to learn your names?"

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**Aaaand I'm cutting you off there. Fear not- there's one more chapter! You know what to do (...review?)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So, sorry if the last chapter seemed... Random. As I said before, I didn't really proofread it. Anyway, this is the last part of this story. Also, tell me if this doesn't make sense- I just really like how this played out in my head. I thanked everyone in the last chapter, which I posted... (checks watch) five minutes ago. So, yeah! See you August third- and some day, I'd like to do a Q&A on YouTube or something. So, ask me questions and I'll answer them when I get back! (Because by then I'll be tan and presentable) :P. Enjoy this last part!**

**~Caitlyn**

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_36 weeks_

"Okay, Riley, big push, now!" The doctor encouraged her. Riley gritted her teeth, squeezed Danny's hand, and pushed as hard as she could. Three seconds later, a wail pierced the air, and Danny raced over to cut the umbilical cord, careful not to look at the bloody area from which his child had come. Instead, he looked at the screaming baby until the nurse whisked him away to be cleaned and weighed. Danny went back to Riley's side as she prepared for the second baby.

"You're doing great, babe. Just one more." He kissed her forehead and was rewarded with a slight slap on the cheek. He pulled away to find Riley glaring at him. "I am angry, hormonal and _giving birth_. Do. Not. Touch. Me." She growled. He backed away slowly, hands in the air.

Five minutes later, though, she was gripping his hand just as hard as before, pushing again. "Last one, Riley. Big, big push!"

Riley glared at Danny. "Your kids are freaking _huge_." She spat before focusing back on the matter at hand. One loud scream later, another baby's wail was heard, and Danny moved to cut the cord, and then their second baby was whisked away as well. Danny moved back to Riley's side and brushed her hair out of her sweaty forehead.

"I think you just owned childbirth, Riles." He said, tentatively kissing her forehead.

"No thanks to you." She grumbled, but then she grabbed his face and kissed his lips deeply and passionately. He was about to complain about her mixed signals when he glanced up and saw two smiling nurses at the door, each hold ing a baby, one in a blue blanket, and one in a pink one. They gently laid the girl in Danny's arms, and the boy to Riley.

Danny stared into his sleeping daughter's beautiful face. Her little fist started thumping down on her blanket, and Danny held his pinky to her tiny little hand, and she immediately wrapped her five tiny fingers around (most of) his pinky. He looked over at Riley, who was rocking their son in her arms, cooing to him and kissing his face.

"You're a natural, Riley." Danny admired her, rocking his daughter gently.

"So are you, Danny. We've both had practice." She reminded him, and he thought of Emma, and how much she had grown.

"Where _is_ everyone?" Danny wondered out loud. As if on cue, loud bustling sounded from the hallway, and Ben ran in, Emma attached to his hand. He stopped short at the sight of his siblings in law, and smiled.

"Say hi to your new cousins, Emma." Ben said, pointing to the newborns. Emma waved at them, and climbed onto Riley's bed to get a better look. "Oh, Emma don't-" Ben started to protest, but Riley cut him off.

"It's fine, Ben. Say hi to Emma." She told her son. Emma giggled and touched his tiny nose with her finger.

Tucker and Bonnie stumbled in next. "Tell that woman I got here first!" Were the first words out of Tucker's mouth.

"You were not! I'm his mother, I'm always fi- Oh. Hi, Ben." Bonnie greeted her youngest son, sounding rather put out. Ben made an offended noise. Bonnie turned to Danny and Riley, holding their respective children.

"Oh my goodness. My grand-babies." Bonnie pressed a hand to her heart, looking teary eyed. Emma waved.

"Hi grandma." Emma waved. Bonnie gave her a half wave but didn't take her eyes off of Danny, who had become oblivious to the world, rocking his daughter in his arms.

She stirred in his arms before blinking awake. Riley craned her neck and smiled. "She has your eyes, Danny."

Danny smiled, but didn't speak.

Emma tapped her cousin in blue's nose again, and this time he blinked awake. His dark hazel eyes took a moment to focus on the scene around him. Danny nudged Riley. "And he has your eyes, Riles." She leaned up to kiss him, and he met her halfway. Ben coughed, breaking the moment.

Riley gazed at her son for a moment before saying, "Welcome to the world, Blake."

Danny smiled at his son before looking back at his daughter, still holding his pinky. "Welcome to the world, Rose." He whispered to her, holding her close. He knew everything wouldn't be easy, and he'd lose many hours of sleep over these children. But they were his world now, and he'd be heading into this journey with Riley, and the promise of all that was to come was shining brightly.

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**Thanks for reading this story! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! See you in three weeks!**


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